Saturday, March 22, 2008

A Golf Book For True Aficianados

Golf Courses of the US Open, David Barrett; Abrams

Winged Foot’s West Course is just one of the 50 elite courses profiled by White Plains, NY golf writer David Barrett in this stunning large-format volume. Barrett was features editor of Golf Magazine for 18 years and knows whereof he writes. In addition to Pebble Beach, Oakmont, and Pinehurst #2, Barrett also introduces the golf-addicted reader to some lesser-known sites from the early history of the tournament such as Myopia Hunt Club and Inwood Country Club.

Barrett’s narrative includes an immense amount of detail about each course’s history and design as well as numerous anecdotes about the great (and not-so-great) players of the game. There’s also a foreword by Rees Jones, who is known as the “Open Doctor” for his architectural work on many US Open courses.

I'm a freelance writer and photographer who regularly works for about three dozen magazines and newspapers covering a diverse range of topics. I have the most fun, though, when I write about golf. Sometimes, I even have fun when I PLAY golf.

I'm a member of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association, which serves the game by honoring outstanding champions and contributors, promoting golf journalism, and raising money for metropolitan (New York) area golf programs.

My career as a broadcaster, entrepreneur, and writer has taken me from the jungles of Australia’s Cape York Peninsula to the minarets of Riyadh. I've climbed the spire of the Empire State Building, floated the Usumacinta River to the Mayan ruins at Piedras Negras in Guatemala, and photographed the tree-climbing lions and mountain gorillas of Uganda, but those adventures were no more thrilling than my chip-in eagle on the second hole at Pebble Beach.